I’m about to exchange my company given Diesel Indica DLE, 1999 model for a Petrol Indica V2 LSI within 2 weeks. It is therefore a good time to write about the Indica Diesel DLE experience. Note that this is the pre V2 model.
On the whole it has been a great ride. In this car I’ve driven up and down the Konkan coast, interior Maharashtra, interior Karnataka, all over Goa, parts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttaranchal and Delhi. The biggest journeys were a 1500 km trip from Pune thru Dhule, Mandu, Indore, Gwalior, Agra, Delhi to Dehradun and an equally long return via Delhi, Bharatpur, Pushkar, Udaipur, Lothal, Surat, Valsad and Mumbai. The car has so far done around 60, 000 kms over these 4 years with 20, 000 of these over the last year alone.
The two best things about the Indica were,
Robustness - the car can go great distances without giving a problem. It may be noisy, both within and without, the various belts sometimes make an unholy racket but in these 4 years, never once did the car let me down in getting from point a to point b. Once, at Chilha national park, the front left axle got damaged when I drove over some rocks. Even after this, the car completed the safari ride and took me back to Dehradun with only the occasional rattle. This is a car which can take a lot thrown at it and yet hang on.
Space and Roominess - my wife and I often used the car as a caravan with the two of us in the front and the folded back space containing our back packs and a whole lot of other stuff. Especially in long distance rides, the passenger’s leg and side room become big causes of discomfort. The Indica is a generous car and doesn’t stint on space.
The two most irritating aspects were,
Cabin noise - the first version of Indica was very generous even in it’s noise levels. Even with all windows closed, the engine sound and ambient sound levels were high enough to discourage more than single sentence conversations, a big irritant in long drives.
Power - especially in city driving, opportunities for overtaking are few and must be made use of when the opportunity presents itself. Even with the A/C off, the Indica would pant and groan to overtake say a lorry or a bus. This was also a problem in 2 lane roads and state highways where you have about 5 seconds to overtake the bus ahead and escape back into your lane to avoid getting hit by the lorry in the opposite lane.
Maintenance wise the biggest costs were of a door which got hit by a truck, the front left axle, the alternator and the timing belt.
The car gave me around 13-14 kms in city driving and around 17-18 on highways at around 80 kmph.
I know that this first virtually experimental car by Telco (where we were the guinea pigs) has taken a lot of flak since it doesnt compare well wrt to the V2 or models of other makers. But the Indica has been a generous car which gives more than it takes and a generous ally in my travels.